Freshman Farmer

Now we are direct seeding all sorts of hot weather veggies. Cucumbers, melons, zucchini, you name it, we are planting it (within the general farm plan, of course). Ryan and I are working very hard, putting in 12-13 hour days, in addition to harvesting and delivery for the CSA (now 20 members). We are going to start a farmers’ market this coming saturday.

Ryan is feeling the heat. I am also, but he just jumped into all this work very quickly. He’s getting used to the (backbreaking) work, and there’s no way I could do it without him. 1.25 acres is a lot of work. It is easy to plant it, but another thing to grow good, really high quality veggies, especially the first year on native foothill soil (which generally isn’t any good). So, it takes more work, more compost, and much more attention and energy.

The broccoli is outrageous.

The first boxes had:

Daikon radish, salad radishes, kale, tat soi, baby stir fry mix, lettuce mix, broccoli, rosemary, oregano, dill and baby spinach.

Next week it will be very similar, yet much more broccoli. Carrots are still a couple of weeks away, as are beets, peas, cabbage, cauliflower and chard.

We are gearing up for a maha (great) week at the farm, with many hundreds of row feet to be direct seeded. We are getting 50 yards of compost to bolster the tilth and nutrition of the soil. That will make 75 yards total this year to supply a farm about 1.1 acres. That is a lot, but I feel it is necessary to grow the quality of crops that we want. This also means a lot of work, wheel-barrowing it around and mixing it into the rows.

Fortunately, it isn’t just myself at the farm anymore. Ryan is here for the rest of the summer. Very happy am I about this.

We were going to start attending a farmer’s market in town this last week, but our application has to be approved by the board, so we’ll be there this upcoming saturday. We need that market to sell our extra radishes, lettuce mix, stir-fry mix, dill, broccoli and cilantro.

adios,
drew

Whew.  That was a busy week.  I harvested, packed and delivered for 18 families this week, in addition to the madness that is May.

This is prime planting season right now, because the soil has warmed to a suitable 70-75 degrees.  So, now we can direct seed corn, cucumbers, melons, watermelons, basil, squash, winter squash, and a great many other vegetables.

So, throw the CSA into Monday and Wednesday, and planting, and maintenance, and that makes me a busy boy.

We are getting nice, huge heads of broccoli…the early work of prowling for cutworms has payed off!!!  The interesting thing is…the broccoli I planted in March had a lot of cutworm action…the broccoli I planted third week of March got harassed by the birds, but the broccoli planted end of March was problem free and it looks like that planting (about 110 plants) is going to be the best of all.

I never explained my organic status. It is as follows:

In the eyes and hearts of the USDA, state of California, and most other beaurocratic institutions, I am not an organic grower…at all.

The reason being: to be an organic grower, the grower MUST be CERTIFIED as an organic producer by a third party organization (ie CCOF).

Okay, I think this is straightforward, and a good thing. However, it is only necessary in our dysfunctional food economy, where most of us will never meet the farmer who grew our food, not see the land from which it came. We rely on labels and tags, resting assured because Big Producer X is Certified Organic.

Well, some farms are 1000 acres of carrots, yet they are certified organic. I don’t mean to cause trouble, but if that is what organic means, then you can have that label all to yourself.

I didn’t get certified this year. I completed the application, am completely knowledgeable about the rules and regs (obviously I was already following them)…yet, when it came down to it, it was just way too expensive. I mean, 1000 dollars is a LARGE percent of my income right now. I don’t need that, not when I have strong community support, buyers who trust I don’t douse the crops with pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. I don’t need the certification when I have local chefs coming out to the farm to pick veggies and see it for themselves.

So, next time you are at the Farmer’s Market, give the growers who claim to be “sustainable”, “eco-friendly”, etc, a sincere chance. Chat with them. Ask them why not “organic”.

I think I’ll go with “eco-grown”.

many blessings,

Andrew

So, for the last time, I think we’ve turned the corner into frost-free weather…now?

Who knows.

I sure don’t. We had another frost…a hard frost - 34 degrees on Tuesday night. The forecast called for 40 degrees.

What a surprise. Nothing was covered. Not the tomatoes, not the peppers, not the eggplant, nor zucchini, cucumbers, more tomatoes. So, to summarize, we didn’t lose anything!!!

My heart was in a ball as I got out to the farm a little before 7am. By the good grace, it was all good. I still really don’t know how. But, life is FULL of mysteries. This is just another. The neighbor lost her peppers, melons, and summer squash. Wildgrace Farm has some wild grace.

I didn’t/don’t take that blessing for granted. It could have been gone. So, the next night, although it was forecasted for 40, I covered most things anyway with Agribon hoophouses. It was a gesture of gratitude on my part.

I am so happy the warm-weather veggies have made it through April. The tomatoes are setting green little fruit - getting nearly knee high.

The CSA is starting next week…there’s still room if you’ve been on the fence and want to join (hint hint…a little shameless advertising).

As a final note…in the ensuing years as a farmer, I will never:

1. Plant melon transplants in March
2. leave the agribon off the tomatoes/peppers/eggplant until April passes and WARM May weather arrives
3. get apprehensive about starting the CSA and if I can do it or not
4. believe the weather on the internet

I am going to start signing off from now on.

Much love,

Andrew

A few people have noted that while they appreciate and agree with the basic challenges that young farmers face nowadays, they wonder why and how Andrew was able to find land to start a farm, how did he afford it? Is he secretly a millionaire? He answers that question in this video.

He also talks about how he plans to fund the farm for the rest of the season, and for the seasons to come.

 

 Part 5 - Money Matters: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As a first-year farm hand, I was overwhelmed at first by the size of the field. I had the realization that the only way this field would be planted was by Andrew and my own bare hands. This should not overwhelm the first year farmer. Take one bed at a time and before you know it, half of your field will be planted. It is a journey watching the field ever expand and become the vision Andrew is dreaming. I never thought I would be so excited to go to work everyday just to see if the seeds we planted the other day had finally popped up. It is quite fun.

Andrew and I have been finding our rhythm. I have found that transplanting is very hard for me and I can only do it for a short while before my lower back starts to hurt. Andrew can also transplant about twice as fast as me. I have been getting much faster and efficient, but I still do not feel very comfortable performing this task. I seem to like the brunt work which involves moving wheelbarrow loads of soil, creating beds, and irrigation work.

Andrew is a super kind farmer and he usually tries to makes the job as easy for everyone else without thinking of himself. He is a truly selfless friend. In the coming weeks I hope to attain the farming touch, with a little practice anything is possible!

In each of the last two days I have seen a rattlesnake. In years past I considered this animal my enemy, out for my flesh and blood and possibly my car. Now we are devout friends. I encourage them to go after our mutual enemy, senyor Gopher. I like to believe that the rattlers are as vigorous in hunting the gophers as the Gopher Snakes are (aka King Snakes).

I feel like the emergence of the Rattlers as of late signals the emergence of my inner warrior. I am being serious right now. I feel
a great bond and connection to these fearsome animals.

I was walking from the field greenhouse to the gate when I heard that ethereal rattle in the bushes. I made the same noise back, in order to discover the source of this noise. We did this interplay for a few moments, until I spotted the huge, coiled, black rattler, not more than 10 feet from my body.

I payed my respects to the great snake, left it be, and went on my merry way.

Some would have taken a shovel to this amazing animal. I see the point in that. They are dangerous, and will kill small humans.
However, where I farm, for every rattler that I give the shovel head, there are 10 more out there.

As a race of people, we’ve done a great job of eliminating dangerous animals from our landscape. I don’t feel comfortable continuing this trend. I can’t live in fear of the lions and snakes, for I know that will only bring them to me. I respect them, even feel a strong love. I know their power. I know they could even kill me. So can cars.

On the horizon, the weather looks great.

Well, after the freeze, we haven’t looked back. We’ve been planting out peppers, eggplant - we even put out zucchini and cucumbers today.

We’ve direct-seeded beans, planted out basil. We’ve just gone to town with the summer stuff, and the cool weather stuff is just maturing.

I am pushing the season. I’m sure this is a classic first-year, wet-behind-the-ears mistake, but it is working so far The tomatoes are growing like gang-busters (assuming “gang-busters” do good growing?) and all the other summer stuff is doing great. Sure, the low temps last week gave me some righteous nightmares, but somehow, I’m sure, it’s probably going to be worth it…someday, maybe.

My help has disappeared for the moment. My good buddy, Paul, went back to Gotham after a week-long stint at the farm (don’t believe anything he writes about me). Ryan is gone for the next week and a half. I tend to get a little bit overwhelmed at times like these, but I think I am getting better, and will make it through this period just fine. Nevertheless, words of encouragement and support are greatly appreciated (equally welcome are good thoughts about this endeavor).

I didn’t address this, but we had a serious frost here last weekend. I know I touched base about it, but now I am starting to understand just how serious it was. It didn’t really do much damage here at Wildgrace - 10 or so tomatoes, a few brassicas, etc - but the other farmers in the area got hit big time.

Some of my farmer friends lost all of their brassicas, all of their fruit…everything they had out. Even down in the valley, in Davis, they had a freeze (which set a record for the latest freeze down there), and lost tomatoes and all the other warm season stuff.

I saw it coming, by looking at the forecast, but I really didn’t believe it was going to get as cold as it did. I mean, a couple of days prior, it was 85 here, with 52 as the low!

So, that is farming. We can’t control the weather. We can’t control the gophers. I have a tough enough time controlling myself and my own mental state, let alone the forces of our great mother.

Let’s all commiserate with our farmers. Let’s show them more support than ever, knowing that this job is at once both gratifying and impossibly frustrating and confounding.

By the way, it was 85 again today.